Online Gaming Ban

If you haven't noticed the U.S. Congress pulled a sneaky and destroyed $6.4 billion in stock market value. Not bad for a day's work.

We'll have to wait and see just how this will shake out, since the banks will have a lot of say in writing the enforcement rules. (If you didn't know, this is pretty common. The lawmakers lack the brains to figure this part out, so they outsource it to the corporations that will be affected by the new laws.) That'll take care of the financial side, and might cause the banks to stop dealing with Neteller, et al.

But teh funneh part is that it criminalizes promoting online gaming, while not targeting individual players. They leaned the lesson of Prohibition, where arresting drinkers proved too much of a problem. It'll now be so damn inconvenient, that people will stop playing online.

Here are some ways this could work out, if a headline hungry federal prosecutor decides to push things:

• Force ESPN to block out all online casino/poker room logos from their past WSOP coverage. Most likely ESPN (owned by Disney) would just stop the broadcasting, instead of spending the time to blur all the logos.
• Arrest "affiliate site" owners for having links and promotions for online casinos/poker rooms.
• Issue arrest warrants for U.S. citizens working for online casinos in foreign countries, effectively banning them from ever returning home.

But I have to say, this is about the best example of "revenge of the smokers" I've yet seen.

Smokers are an easy target, first having been forced outside to huddle outside in doorways, then banned from the doorways. All to "protect" them by making it so inconvenient to smoke, some might quit. Plus, the general public was "protected" from second hand smoke.

One of the advantages of online poker play was that the players didn't have to sit next to the "dirty smokers." I've heard quite a few people wish that smoking was banned from all poker rooms. They got their wish and the larger rooms in Vegas, and even smaller local Indian casinos declared the poker rooms smoke free. There was much cheering and rejoicing throughout the land.

Well it turns out that online poker players/sports betters/etc. are just as easy of targets. "Dirty smokers" and "dirty gamblers" aren't that far apart in the eyes of the righteous. So it's pretty easy for congress critters to abuse them like a red-headed page.

You're witnessing the feet of the U.S. start do slide down a very slippery slope, where all "deviant" non-approved activities are banned.